In Depth:  Salim J. Munayer

letter from the

Recently the Israeli Prime Minster announced his coalition government could not keep its majority and, in few months, on 1 November, we will have another election in Israel, the fifth election in three years.

There are many factors that have contributed to the inability of Israel to have a stable government, and many point to the nature of the election system or the presence of small political parties that are empowered beyond their political representation. Yet, in recent years, the national religious narrative has been increasingly gaining traction among the political power junction of the Israeli state. This narrative sees the state as an instrument to redeem the land from others – as it was promised to the Jews by God – and calls for Jews to create the conditions for the coming of the Messiah. It also sustains that the authority in the land needs to be Halacha, the rabbinical Jewish law.

We used to say life in Jerusalem is not boring; every day something is happening. But the recent events have shaken a city even as unpredictable as this one, with major implications for multiple areas of our lives.

In the last few years, many thought that Israel had successfully marginalised the Palestinian ‘problem’ domestically and internationally. However, now it is again at the forefront of the political agenda and media. This is a major blow to Israel’s strategic plan as pursued by former Prime Minister Netanyahu, who had been in power for 12 years. The new government will have to choose different strategies in order to address the conflict.